The Faces and Funding Behind the Tallahassee City Commission Race

Photo Credit: Mishalynn Brown/Tallahassee Democrat

With it being Election Day, all eyes and ears are on state and federal races. However, while most Floridians will be looking to see what changes happen in Tallahassee on the state level, many within the city itself are looking more locally to an election that will shape how the capital is governed for the next two years: the race for Tallahassee City Commission Seat 2. The race is between Commissioner Curtis Richardson and Former Tallahassee Mayor Dorothy “Dot” Inman-Johnson, with the winner of this race deciding the majority on the Commission, currently split 3-2 on several issues regarding development and growth within Tallahassee between Mayor John Dailey and City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow, respectively. The significant interest of this election has led to record spending for Tallahassee politics, with more than $800,000 being raised between both candidates and their backing Political Committees.

Who is in the running?

Curtis Richardson and his wife Nina have lived in Tallahassee their “entire adult lives,” raising their two daughters in the historic Southside neighborhood. His family attends Bethel AME church, where he serves as an usher and trustee. Richardson earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in school psychology from Florida State University, utilizing those skills during his time working with the Gadsden County school system and the Florida Department of Education. Richardson has previously served four terms in the Florida House of Representatives, six years on the Leon County School Board, and worked as a school psychologist in Gadsden County. He is currently the two-term incumbent for Seat 2, having first assumed the office in 2014, running again to “…ensure that Tallahassee remains an All-America city for years to come.”

Richardson has been endorsed in this election by Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey; City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox; former Congressman Al Lawson; Rev. Julius Harrison McAllister, Jr., the pastor of Bethel AME Church; the Big Bend Chapter of the Florida Police Benevolent Association, the local police union; and others. Richardson has received financial support from the Citizens for Balanced Growth Political Committee and the Grow Tallahassee Political Committee.

Dorothy “Dot” Inman-Johnson has lived in Tallahassee since 1971, coming to the community to work as a teacher and to be involved in the Civil Rights community in the city. She is the co-founder of Loved by Jesus Family Church. Inman-Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in visual arts from Clark Atlanta University, utilizing those skills during her 28 years as a teacher. Inman-Johnson has previously served two terms on the Tallahassee City Commission (wherein she served as Mayor in 1989 and 1993 due to the rotating nature of the office amongst Commissioners at the time) and has worked as an author, an art teacher at Florida State University High School, and as the executive director of the Capital Area Community Action Agency. She is returning to local politics with the goal to “…provide a fresh–more inclusive–perspective, with a return to ethics, trust, transparency, and civility to the city commission.”

Inman-Johnson has been endorsed in this election by City Commissioner Jeremey Matlow; Rev. Derek Steele, the son of Civil Rights leader Rev. Charles Kenzie Steele; Tallahassee Professional Firefighters, the local firefighters union; the Leon County Democratic Environmental Caucus; the Tallahassee Young Democrats; and others. Inman-Johnson has received financial support from the One Tallahassee Political Committee and the Big Bend Professional Firefighters and Paramedics Political Committee.

How much has been raised and spent?

Per data collected by the Tallahassee Democrat–as of October 1st, 2024–Curtis Richardson and the political committees backing him have raised $505,528 for his reelection campaign, with $339,783 already being spent. That same data shows Inman-Johnson and the One Tallahassee Political Committee have raised $322,932 (spending $196,147 of it), with an additional $10,000 in mailers having been paid for by the Big Bend Professional Firefighters and Paramedics Political Committee. More recent campaign finance data can be challenging to track due to issues with the Florida Department of State’s Division of Elections’s Campaign Finance Activity sheets, which do not indicate where political committees spend their money. The Democrat has more recently reported that the total spent on the campaign between both candidates has risen to more than $900,000 but did not elaborate on their sources.

To support Richardson’s reelection campaign, many local businesses and developers have donated directly to his campaign or the political committees aligned with him. His campaign has directly received donations from corporate entities and businesspeople such as VancoreJones Communications ($4,000); project developers for The Heel at Welaunee (>$5,000); Ed Murray Jr., the president of commercial real estate firm NAI TALCOR ($14,000); and Premier Construction and other companies owned by the Ghazvini family ($10,000). The PCs aligned with Richardson have also been receiving large amounts of support. The Citizens for Balanced Growth PC has raised  $125,000, the entirety of which comes from local land investor Jeffrey Phillips. The Grow Tallahassee PC–organized by local businessman Bugra Demirel–has received donations from Gordon Thames, the owner of several apartment complex construction companies ($20,000); Bill Smith Jr., the president and CEO of Capital City Bank ($5,000); and Moore Bass Consulting ($5,000).

While Inman-Johnson has stated that she will refuse to accept donations larger than $1,000 from any organization with business before the city, saying instead that she wants her campaign to be “people-powered,” support for Inman-Johnson’s election campaign has seen many out-of-state political committees donate directly to her campaign or the One Tallahassee Political Committee aligned with her. The One Tallahassee PC has received donations from the Green Advocacy Project, a Palo Alto, California-based organization ($75,000), and donations from other out-of-state PCs like the Local Jobs and Economic Development Fund of Delaware ($25,000).

Why has so much been put into this race?

The Tallahassee City Commission–made entirely of Democrats–has, since 2020, been locked in a 3-2 divide between centrist, developer-aligned Commissioners led by Mayor John Dailey and more progressive Commissioners led by Commissioner Jeremy Matlow. This divide has often seen discussions on city projects regarding development and other controversial topics descend into accusations and feuding, turning the Commission into, according to Mayor Dailey, a “political circus.” Richarson aligns himself with Mayor Dailey whenever these debates arise, along with Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox. Should Inman-Johnson win Seat 2, however, the majority bloc on the Commission would swing towards Commissioner Matlow and Commissioner Jacqueline “Jack” Porter.

One prominent example of the split between the Commission is with the title of mayor pro tem, a title equivalent to vice mayor elected by the entire Commission to serve when the mayor cannot attend Commission meetings. Since the division first defined itself in 2020, Commissioners Richardson and William-Cox have each served in the role twice (2022 and 2024, and 2020 and 2023, respectively), while Commission Matlow has only served in the role once in 2021, and Commission Porter having gone without.

Another central area of contention amongst the Commission is the performance of the current City Manager, Reese Goad. Richardson stands as an ally for City Manager Goad, saying that, should a vote arise to fire him, he would be firmly against it. On the other hand, Inman-Johnson has described his performance as “dismal,” saying that she would consider voting to fire him after “due process.”

What can history show us?

While the incumbent Richardson has outspent Inman-Johnson by over $140,000 and outraised her by more than $180,000, Tallahassee electoral history has proven that money and incumbency do not make an election certain. For example, in the 2010 City Commission race for Seat 3, the candidates were Stephen Hogge and Nancy Miller. Despite Hogge outspending Miller’s campaign by almost double when the primaries came, Miller secured 47% of the vote to Hogge’s 42%, defeating him 55%-45% in the November runoff. While this race is between different actors and under different circumstances, there is an element of comparison between the contests for Seat 3 in 2010 and that for Seat 2 in 2024.The August 20th primary results suggest potential challenges for Richardson. As mentioned, despite being the commissioner, Richardson only won 14,746 votes–43.56% of all votes cast for the race–and came second to Inman-Johnson’s 15,791 votes–46.65% of all votes cast for the race. On the other hand, this primary race only saw 29.71% of Tallahassee’s registered voters cast a ballot. With this being decided at the same time as the general election, a larger pool of voters may yet turn out in support of Richardson. Alternatively, Inman-Johnson’s lead may hold out, and the Mayor’s majority on the City Commission may be lost. Only on Wednesday, November 6th will we learn what Tallahassee’s governing coalition will look like.